Democratic border visit

Schumer to lead Democratic border visit

By BURGESS EVERETT

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and other congressional Democrats will travel to the southern border this weekend to "investigate, inspect and evaluate the latest conditions at these facilities."

The New York Democrat said that he will report back to the Senate and the public what he finds.

"The last few months, Americans have seen for themselves the awful conditions that migrant children are enduring at the Southern border. Faultless kids, many traveling alone and many very young, are subject to inhumane conditions without the proper health care, nutrition, hygiene or space," Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday. "No one should want to see these kids treated so inhumanely. All they're doing is fleeing for a better life."

At least a dozen Senate Democrats will attend, according to an aide.

The Democratic visit follows a border trip by Vice President Mike Pence, in which pool reporters saw crowded border facilities for migrant men and also comparatively clean facilities for children. Senators in both parties are discussing asylum reform legislation to deal with the influx at the border, but the effort has been stalled for weeks.